MSG'S PLAYOFF TICKET POLICY FOR KNICKS/RANGERS CRITICIZED

     MSG's new playoff ticket payment plan is the "most onerous
playoff ticket deal in the long history of the Garden," writes
Phil Mushnick in this morning's N.Y. POST.  The ITT/Cablevision
ownership is now asking for an earlier full payment from season
ticket holders for playoff tickets to the Rangers and the Knicks.
MSG says it is billing "extra early as a service to fans; to
avoid long lines at the box office ... How considerate."
Mushnick says MSG should return money for unused playoff tickets,
or apply the money to next year's tickets with the "appropriate
bank interest attached; months worth of interest the Garden will
pocket."  In other Garden news, the MSG Network has notified
their affiliates there will be no rebate for the 35 lost Ranger
games due to the NHL work stoppage.  Earlier, MSG Network
President Doug Moss "promised cable systems and, by extension,
their subscribers, a rebate based on the loss" of the games.
Moss has since left the network.  Mushnick writes, "We don't know
enough about ITT, but we do know that an abused consumer has long
been Cablevision's idea of a job well done" (Phil Mushnick, N.Y.
POST, 3/29).